Hope
by hriddle14
Summary: Hermione has cancer.


Disclaimer: Not mine

Some years after Voldemort's defeat, life seemed to be perfect. Famous Aurors Harry Potter and Ronald Weasley had everything they could wish for. They had married the most amazing women in the world, and had amazing children. Harry and Ginny had two year old twin boys, and Ron and Hermione had two girls: the oldest, Isabelle, was nine; Annie was six.

Everything seemed to be normal. That is until one day, when Hermione started to feel sick. The healers at St. Mungo's did all the tests necessary to diagnose her condition. When the results came in, Hermione was in for a heart-breaking surprise: she had cancer.

She had both the wizarding and the Muggle procedures to cure cancer done. (She didn't think it was necessary to try Muggle resources, but her parents had insisted.) It went away. Two years passed. But a few months ago, it came back. When the healers performed a biopsy, they found that the illness had metastasized, leaving her with only a couple of months to live. She got very sick earlier this week, and tonight, Ron got really scared and took her to the hospital. When they arrived at St. Mungo's, the healers told Ron that he should call the rest of the family. It was most likely she wouldn't make it through the night.

---

"Hi," said Ginny, closing the door of Hermione's room behind her. "You look better."

"Oh Gin," she said, tears beginning to fall down her cheeks, "you know I'm not going to make it."

"Don't say that," she answered, trying to hold back tears. "You are going to make it. You will put up a fight." Hermione shook her head slowly. "You have always…" Ginny's voice trailed off.

"Gin," she continued, taking Ginny's hands. They were both sobbing uncontrollably now. "I want you to take care of - of my girls. I know - I - I know that you love them as if they were your own, and I know you'll love them very, very much when I'm gone. Promise me that they will always be loved. You're going to take my place -"

"I will never take your place, no one - no one could ever do that."

"Listen to me! I want you to remind them of how much I love them. Annie is just a little girl, she's - she's just six, and soon she won't remember me at all." There was a brief pause, and then Hermione said: "Gin, I want to see them."

---

When Isabelle walked in with Ron, she looked scared. Her mum lying in bed, waiting for death to take her, and powerless was a terrible thing to see. She approached her mum's bed and kissed her. Annie, who was in her father's arms, looked on the verge of tears, but she was trying to be brave, trying to hold them back.

"Isabelle," Hermione said, "I want you to promise me something. Promise me that you will take care of Annie. I had two girls so they could have a friend in each other, care about each other, and protect each other. I want you to remember that I love both of you with - with all my heart. You are two very brave girls, and I'm very proud of you."

"I love you, mum," said Isabelle, wrapping her arms tightly around Hermione's thin body and beginning to sob on her shoulder.

"Oh sweetheart!" Hermione said, as the dam broke and tears started to fall down her cheeks.

Annie crawled into bed and hugged her mum too. She was crying. Ron, who was standing next to the bed, turned away and went out of the room. It was too intense for him to see his wife dying and not be able to do anything about it. When he came out, he just slid down the wall and brought his hands up to cover his face as his body shook with his sobs. Molly hurried over to his side to comfort him.

The hall outside Hermione's room was full. Arthur was sitting next to Charlie, who had come all the way from Romania; Bill was sitting next to Fleur- they had left their son with Gabrielle (the Potter twins were with her too); Fred and George were really sombre- no one thought that they could get like this, since they were always the most cheerful members of the Weasley family. It was a depressing picture. Ginny was standing next to Harry, both of them with devastated looks on their faces; Ginny's eyes were red, and Harry had bags under his.

Mr. and Mrs. Granger were also there; Mr. Granger looked grave, and Mrs. Granger's grief was beyond tears.

But no one, no one, no one could feel what Ron was feeling; a part of his heart was being pulled away. The love of his life was going away, and just the thought that he would never see her again destroyed him. There he sat, looking for comfort on his mother's arms, comfort he knew he would never feel again.

"Ron?" said Ginny after Ron calmed down, her voice sounding very far away.

He looked up.

"I think the girls should go over to Gabrielle's. They shouldn't stay any longer. It's not good for them." Ron nodded.

"I'll take zem when zey are ready," said Fleur.

Ron silently got up and entered the room. Isabelle and Annie had fallen asleep with Hermione. Ron went back and asked Harry for help. Harry went inside and exited the room with a sleeping Isabelle on his arms. Ron came out with Annie.

After the grandparents kissed their granddaughters goodnight, Ron, Harry, and Fleur Apparated to Gabrielle's place. They quickly came back.

When Ron entered Hermione's room again, Mr. and Mrs. Granger were hugging Hermione. As he was exiting the room, Hermione's voice called him.

"Stay, Ron," she asked.

Mr. and Mrs. Granger took that as their signal and went out of the room.

"I love you, sweetheart," Mr. Granger said, giving her a hug and a kiss in the forehead.

"I love you too, dad."

Ron went to sit on Hermione's bed. Without him noticing, tears started to fall freely down his cheeks. Hermione took his face in her hands and wiped away the tears.

"I love you with all my heart," he said, his voice barely over a whisper. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him passionately. Then she started sobbing into his chest.

"I will never see them go to Hogwarts. I will never see them get married. I won't meet my grandchildren. I missed their lives," said Hermione, crying.

"I can't believe I'm losing you," said Ron.

"You're not losing me, Ron. You have Annie and Isabelle. I'm leaving a piece of myself in them. I'll always be with you."

Ron got into Hermione's bed and held her in a tight embrace. After a few minutes, both of them fell asleep.

She never woke up.

---

Ron walked into Hogwarts' Great Hall, where the funeral would take place, holding Annie with his left arm and taking Isabelle's left hand in his right. The girls were dressed in beautiful matching lavender dresses (ironically, mum's favourite colour).

As he reluctantly walked to the front of the hall, memories swamped him. They had shared so many special moments in this amazing place. The place where they had been sorted into Gryffindor; the place where they watched Harry's name come out of the Goblet of Fire; the place that Hermione loved and knew so much about. It would end the same place it had started: their beloved Hogwarts, her favourite place in the world.

Ron thought there was something wrong. The place looked much more dismal now - the bewitched ceiling that Hermione was always so fascinated by had been un-enchanted for the funeral, revealing the Hall's dull and gloomy original ceiling. It didn't feel right.

There were a huge number of people waiting to go inside the Hall, but Ron wanted to spend a few moments in private with his wife.

When they reached the front of the Hall, they saw it. It was her coffin. Hermione lay peacefully inside. Ron was trying very hard to maintain his composure for the sake of the girls.

Isabelle squeezed Ron's hand and started crying. Her eyes looked tired and sad. Ron crouched and enveloped both of his daughters in a tight hug, all three of them crying. He knew Annie was too little to understand, and that it would take some time before she could fully grasp the fact that her mum was gone, but he also knew that Isabelle perfectly understood what had happened.

As this was happening, Ginny and Harry were making their way to the front of the hall as well. Ginny, dressed in black, was sobbing quietly, and a grieving Harry was trying to comfort her, his arm wrapped around her.

When Harry got to the front of the hall and saw Hermione, his best friend, in that coffin, he couldn't take it. Ron had stepped away from his girls and was looking desolately at his wife as well. They both raised their heads and looked at each other. In an instant, they were hugging each other fiercely, sobbing into each other's shoulders.

"I miss her so much, Harry," said Ron, between sobs.

"I miss her too," said Harry.

And they just stood there, crying, for several minutes, until Ginny's voice brought them back to reality. Her face was red and blotchy. She was sitting in one of the hundreds of chairs that were set up in the Great Hall for the funeral. Annie and Isabelle were sitting with her too; Annie at her left and Isabelle at her right. She had her arms wrapped around them, trying to comfort them.

"I think we should call the others inside," she said.

"Gin," said Ron, "do you think we can do something about the ceiling?"

Ginny paused for a moment and looked directly into Ron's sad and tired eyes. She took out her wand and with a swish and flick, the ceiling transformed to imitate the beautiful, bright day outside the castle's walls. Ron couldn't help but think how much Hermione would have loved it.

It seemed to Ron that every person in the wizarding world was there. The Minister for Magic, the heads of the different departments of the Ministry, their classmates, and all the Hogwarts faculty members were in line, waiting to pay their last respects to his wife, the brightest witch of her age. The one that stood next to Harry and him in the final battle and saved them on numerous occasions; the one that became head of the Ministry of Magic's House-Elf Services Department (a department she had insisted on creating right after she got out of Hogwarts) and helped hundreds of house-elves; most importantly: wife, friend, and mother of two beautiful little girls.

When McGonagall's turn to see Ron arrived, she gave him an affectionate look far different from her usual stern expression. After a rather stiff hug and quick peck on the cheek, she told him: "It will be all right. You are going to get through this. You know she wouldn't want you to shut yourself out of the world. Those girls need you, and you need them." Ron just nodded, fresh tears coming out of his eyes due to the significance and truth in McGonagall's words. Those words gave him strength.

"Thank you," he said, his voice barely over a whisper.

After greeting what seemed a million people, Ron sat down in the first row, next to his girls. Those girls were the only thing that he cared about; they were his pillar of strength. He looked like he was in some kind of trance, his eyes staring blankly at the coffin. He didn't blink. He didn't move. He just sat there, holding his girls close: his treasures, the only thing he had left.

Then Harry got up.

"Twenty years ago, I met Hermione on the Hogwarts Express. She befriended me from the start, no questions asked. Throughout the years, our friendship grew stronger, and she was always there when I needed her. I wouldn't be standing here today if it wasn't for her.

"She was an extraordinary person, and I'll never forget her." He stopped briefly to swallow the lump in his throat. "I know you would want us to move on, but it's not that easy, Hermione." He was crying now. "I will miss your presence every day," he said, looking teary-eyed at her coffin.

The only thing that could be heard in the Hall was sobbing. Ginny was crying again, and Ron - well, Ron was oblivious to what was happening around him.

When Harry ended his speech, Ron got up and hugged him. They never thought they were going to experience this nightmare. Then he began to speak.

"I never thought she could be gone. I never thought I would have to say goodbye."

Annie was listening to her dad from Ginny's lap, sobbing quietly. Harry was embracing Isabelle; she was calm now, but her eyes were swollen from all the crying.

"She was so young and full of life," he continued. "She was taken from my side too soon. She was very brave, but scared about what would happen to-," Ron paused, choking back an impending sob. The entire crowd in front of him was silent. Ron cleared his throat quietly and glanced at Annie and Isabelle. Then he closed his eyes for a moment, sighed, opened them again, and continued speaking. "What would happen to her little girls once she was gone."

"She was so smart, and sweet, and kind. She was always making me read Muggle books," he said with a small, almost unnoticeable smile. "I loved it when she did that. I will never stop loving her." His voice was filled with pain and grief.

"If you knew Hermione as well as I did, you would understand why. Antoine de Saint Exupéry, my favourite Muggle writer, said: 'If someone loves a flower of which just one sample exists among all the millions and millions of stars, that's enough to make him happy when he looks at the stars.' My Hermione was unique. She was my flower. I took care of her, I spent time protecting her. That's what made her so special. That's why I'll always love her so much."

A bright light surrounded the coffin, and in seconds, Hermione was gone. 

"Come on Ron," called Harry from the doorway.

"No Harry, I can't leave her. It wouldn't feel right.", he cried with tears in his eyes.


End file.
